The use of intellectual property rights by French firms.

In attempting to appropriate their innovations, firms can choose from a range of mechanisms, including patents, trade secrets and lead-times. Yet, little is known about how firms choose different appropriability mechanisms. The aim of this paper is to determine how the use of intellectual property rights(IPs)by French firms is related to their characteristics, activities, competitive strategies and the industry sector in which they operate. Among their characteristics, we test the role of the human resource strategies in keeping employees. Our empirical model is based on the French 2004 Community Innovation Survey(CIS). Our results show that firms have different strategies in the choice of the means of protection according to their basic economic characteristics of firms, their activities and industry environment. They also put in evidence of the role of human resources strategies. Firms that finance R&D training prefer to use non-statutory means.